Chartres Cathedral

Christianity came to the ground of Chartres Cathedral by the first century AD. Before Christians began to inhabit Chartres, France, Druids living in the town offered their ceremonies to the gods around a particular well in the center of the town. The ground on which the cathedral stands was sacred to this cult who possessed a strong devotion to a particular Black Madonna, inevitably believed as the Virgin “who shall give birth”. The Druids persecuted the Christians as they began to move into Druid territory, and they accomplished this by throwing lay people and religious down the town well (as tall as a ten story building). The "Saints' Well", as it came to be called, proved to be miraculous from remains of martyrs in the water. [1] 

The whole cathedral of Chartres dates to the 8th century when the first church was set on fire and rebuilt. “One of the most completely surviving medieval churches”, Chartres stands up to this testimony due to existing 12th and 13th century stained glass and sculptures. After the choir around the main altar was finished in 1221, Chartres Cathedral was consecrated in 1260 "as one of the most compelling expressions of the strength and poetry of medieval Catholicism". [2] Spiritual intensity is great in the interior due to absence of direct light and its many stained glass windows. At the center of Chartres is seen the only labyrinth existing in France. This labyrinth signifies life, and, to the pilgrims who followed the design on their knees, it was symbolic of arriving at the new Jerusalem. The circle of the labyrinth signifies God: the Alpha and the Omega, no beginning and no end. The great rose window, seen above, is filled with symbolism pertaining to the Last Judgment. Christ, in the center, is surrounded with smaller windows portraying the four Evangelists; choirs of Angels, directly above Christ, announce His coming. Below Christ is seen St. Michael weighing the souls, the blessed seen on Christ's right, the damned on the left, with hell and limbo below. 

 Thirteenth century stained glass windows around the perimeter of the cathedral - 176 to be exact - illustrate Biblical history; these windows are responsible for naming the cathedral "the book of Chartres". Starting on the left side and ending on the right next to the main portal on the interior, the entire Bible is pictured in the windows; the reason for this was to teach the illiterate medieval population about the Faith. The north window, in the cold away from the sun, symbolizes the time of the Old Testament when civilization waited for the Messiah to come. Across the transept, the south window shows the warmth of the time of the New Testament after Christ was born. 

Romanesque and Gothic architecture contribute to the awe-inspiring cathedral. The Romanesque steeple at left is portrayed along with the 338 foot tall old bell tower with its many windows. The oldest and main portal of the cathedral dates to the mid-twelfth century. Twelfth century statues around the main door show Christ in His glory at the Last Judgment. Sculpted by Boudin in 1612, the Romanesque choir around the altar portrays forty-one scenes from the life of Our Lord. From the twelth to the thirteenth century, the nave was built, composed of seven bays. Gothic architecture is plainly seen on the east side of the cathedral by the many flying buttresses. Besides the buttresses, the style of many columns as support for the stone ceiling and pointed arches allow room for many windows. [3] 

Chartres is important in the religious and historical sense. In the crypt built by St. Fulbert between 1020 to 1024 (now the largest crypt in France) is a wall dating back to the third or fourth century from the Roman town of Chartres. Julius Caesar attests to this in his Gallic Wars, in which he describes the town of Carnutes as being the center of the Druids. [4] St. Bernard preached the First Crusade at Chartres. St. Louis Martin, father of St. Therese of Liseux, also made many pilgrimages to Chartres. The cathedral has been one of many landmarks of thousands of Santiago Compostella pilgrims since the Middle Ages. 

In St. Fulbert's crypt, Charles the Bald presented the cathedral with the Virgin's cloak in 876. The Blessed Mother's veil is housed behind the main altar. Below the church in the crypt is part of Our Lady's tunic She wore when Christ was born. Marian devotion increased greatly around the year 1000 that a certain bishop began the project of building a Romanesque cathedral dedicated to the Blessed Mother. 

Our Lady's Veil

A fire destroyed the cathedral in 1194, some historians believing the damage to be almost total, excluding the two towers in front. Had it not been for the courage of three priests rescuing the Virgin's veil and taking shelter in the crypt for three days and nights, the veil would have been lost entirely, diminishing the presence of future pilgrims to Chartres. In addition to the two Marian relics, the miraculous statue of Notre Dame du Pilier stands to the left of the main altar. Votive candles surround the statue of the Virgin and Her Son, now black from hundreds of years of candle smoke. As proof of the strong faith in the Blessed Mother beginning in the Middle Ages, hundreds of crutches stand on either side of the statue, attesting to many physical miracles; no doubt the spiritual miracles surpass that number. On the south side of the choir, to the right of the main altar is one of the stained glass windows that survived the 1194 fire. An object of great devotion, particularly to the pilgrims of the Middle Ages, this window is known as Notre Dame de la Belle Verriere (Our Lady of the Beautiful Window). [5] 

Scupltures around the main portal

Chartres is a temple of light, an insight of heaven on earth. Having visited the cathedral myself, I was struck with the enormous generosity of the people of the Middle Ages to sculpt and erect such an awe-inspiring structure for God. Even as I took this picture on the left, I stood in amazement at the complexity and beautiful detail of each image carved out of limestone. One interesting little detail is to be noticed in this picture: below the trimwork on the right can be seen the smiling face of a serpent. Studying the cathedral, one can become lost in thought as did the illiterate folk, studying their Faith as they looked at the stained glass windows and the sculptures around the altar and the exterior portals. "And many people shall go and say: Come and let us go up to the mountain  of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths." [6]

[1] Joan Gould, "Seeing the Light in Chartres", New York Times, (Dec. 18, 1988)

[2] Author unknown, "Chartres Cathedral", at ChartresCathedral.net. 

[3] Rick Steves, "Age of Faith lives on at Chartres", Chicago Tribune, (June 4, 2017)

[4] Joan Gould, "Seeing the Light in Chartres", New York Times, (Dec. 18, 1988)
[5] Fr. Johann Roten, "Chartres, the Belle-Verriere Window", University of Dayton, at https://udayton.edu/imri/mary/c/chartres-belle-verrire-window.php

[6] Isaiah 2:3